TY - JOUR A1 - Astudillo-Sotomayor, Luis A1 - Jara Muñoz, Julius A1 - Melnick, Daniel A1 - Cortés‐Aranda, Joaquín A1 - Tassara, Andrés A1 - Strecker, Manfred T1 - Fast Holocene slip and localized strain along the Liquiñe-Ofqui strike-slip fault system, Chile JF - Scientific reports N2 - In active tectonic settings dominated by strike-slip kinematics, slip partitioning across subparallel faults is a common feature; therefore, assessing the degree of partitioning and strain localization is paramount for seismic hazard assessments. Here, we estimate a slip rate of 18.8 +/- 2.0 mm/year over the past 9.0 +/- 0.1 ka for a single strand of the Liquirie-Ofqui Fault System, which straddles the Main Cordillera in Southern Chile. This Holocene rate accounts for similar to 82% of the trench-parallel component of oblique plate convergence and is similar to million-year estimates integrated over the entire fault system. Our results imply that strain localizes on a single fault at millennial time scale but over longer time scales strain localization is not sustained. The fast millennial slip rate in the absence of historical Mw> 6.5 earthquakes along the Liquine-Ofqui Fault System implies either a component of aseismic slip or Mw similar to 7 earthquakes involving multi-trace ruptures and > 150-year repeat times. Our results have implications for the understanding of strike-slip fault system dynamics within volcanic arcs and seismic hazard assessments. KW - Geodynamics KW - Geomorphology KW - Tectonics Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-85036-5 SN - 2045-2322 VL - 11 IS - 1 PB - Macmillan Publishers Limited, part of Springer Nature CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - López-Comino, José Ángel A1 - Cesca, Simone A1 - Niemz, Peter A1 - Dahm, Torsten A1 - Zang, Arno T1 - Rupture directivity in 3D inferred from acoustic emissions events in a mine-scale hydraulic fracturing experiment JF - Frontiers in Earth Science N2 - Rupture directivity, implying a predominant earthquake rupture propagation direction, is typically inferred upon the identification of 2D azimuthal patterns of seismic observations for weak to large earthquakes using surface-monitoring networks. However, the recent increase of 3D monitoring networks deployed in the shallow subsurface and underground laboratories toward the monitoring of microseismicity allows to extend the directivity analysis to 3D modeling, beyond the usual range of magnitudes. The high-quality full waveforms recorded for the largest, decimeter-scale acoustic emission (AE) events during a meter-scale hydraulic fracturing experiment in granites at similar to 410 m depth allow us to resolve the apparent durations observed at each AE sensor to analyze 3D-directivity effects. Unilateral and (asymmetric) bilateral ruptures are then characterized by the introduction of a parameter kappa, representing the angle between the directivity vector and the station vector. While the cloud of AE activity indicates the planes of the hydrofractures, the resolved directivity vectors show off-plane orientations, indicating that rupture planes of microfractures on a scale of centimeters have different geometries. Our results reveal a general alignment of the rupture directivity with the orientation of the minimum horizontal stress, implying that not only the slip direction but also the fracture growth produced by the fluid injections is controlled by the local stress conditions. KW - directivity KW - earthquake source KW - induced seismicity KW - hydraulic KW - fracturing KW - acoustic emissions Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2021.670757 SN - 2296-6463 VL - 9 PB - Frontiers Media CY - Lausanne ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Nooshiri, Nima A1 - Bean, Christopher J. A1 - Dahm, Torsten A1 - Grigoli, Francesco A1 - Kristjansdottir, Sigriour A1 - Obermann, Anne A1 - Wiemer, Stefan T1 - A multibranch, multitarget neural network for rapid point-source inversion in a microseismic environment BT - examples from the Hengill Geothermal Field, Iceland JF - Geophysical journal international N2 - Despite advanced seismological techniques, automatic source characterization for microseismic earthquakes remains difficult and challenging since current inversion and modelling of high-frequency signals are complex and time consuming. For real-time applications such as induced seismicity monitoring, the application of standard methods is often not fast enough for true complete real-time information on seismic sources. In this paper, we present an alternative approach based on recent advances in deep learning for rapid source-parameter estimation of microseismic earthquakes. The seismic inversion is represented in compact form by two convolutional neural networks, with individual feature extraction, and a fully connected neural network, for feature aggregation, to simultaneously obtain full moment tensor and spatial location of microseismic sources. Specifically, a multibranch neural network algorithm is trained to encapsulate the information about the relationship between seismic waveforms and underlying point-source mechanisms and locations. The learning-based model allows rapid inversion (within a fraction of second) once input data are available. A key advantage of the algorithm is that it can be trained using synthetic seismic data only, so it is directly applicable to scenarios where there are insufficient real data for training. Moreover, we find that the method is robust with respect to perturbations such as observational noise and data incompleteness (missing stations). We apply the new approach on synthesized and example recorded small magnitude (M <= 1.6) earthquakes at the Hellisheioi geothermal field in the Hengill area, Iceland. For the examined events, the model achieves excellent performance and shows very good agreement with the inverted solutions determined through standard methodology. In this study, we seek to demonstrate that this approach is viable for microseismicity real-time estimation of source parameters and can be integrated into advanced decision-support tools for controlling induced seismicity. KW - Neural networks KW - fuzzy logic KW - Computational seismology KW - Induced seismicity KW - Earthquake source observations Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1093/gji/ggab511 SN - 0956-540X SN - 1365-246X VL - 229 IS - 2 SP - 999 EP - 1016 PB - Oxford Univ. Press CY - Oxford ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schüler, Lennart A1 - Calabrese, Justin M. A1 - Attinger, Sabine T1 - Data driven high resolution modeling and spatial analyses of the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany JF - PLoS one N2 - The SARS-CoV-2 virus has spread around the world with over 100 million infections to date, and currently many countries are fighting the second wave of infections. With neither sufficient vaccination capacity nor effective medication, non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) remain the measure of choice. However, NPIs place a great burden on society, the mental health of individuals, and economics. Therefore the cost/benefit ratio must be carefully balanced and a target-oriented small-scale implementation of these NPIs could help achieve this balance. To this end, we introduce a modified SEIRD-class compartment model and parametrize it locally for all 412 districts of Germany. The NPIs are modeled at district level by time varying contact rates. This high spatial resolution makes it possible to apply geostatistical methods to analyse the spatial patterns of the pandemic in Germany and to compare the results of different spatial resolutions. We find that the modified SEIRD model can successfully be fitted to the COVID-19 cases in German districts, states, and also nationwide. We propose the correlation length as a further measure, besides the weekly incidence rates, to describe the current situation of the epidemic. Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0254660 SN - 1932-6203 VL - 16 IS - 8 PB - PLoS CY - San Fransisco ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Huang, Sichao A1 - Stoof-Leichsenring, Kathleen R. A1 - Liu, Sisi A1 - Courtin, Jeremy A1 - Andreev, Andrej A. A1 - Pestryakova, Luidmila. A. A1 - Herzschuh, Ulrike T1 - Plant sedimentary ancient DNA from Far East Russia covering the last 28,000 years reveals different assembly rules in cold and warm climates JF - Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution N2 - Woody plants are expanding into the Arctic in response to the warming climate. The impact on arctic plant communities is not well understood due to the limited knowledge about plant assembly rules. Records of past plant diversity over long time series are rare. Here, we applied sedimentary ancient DNA metabarcoding targeting the P6 loop of the chloroplast trnL gene to a sediment record from Lake Ilirney (central Chukotka, Far Eastern Russia) covering the last 28 thousand years. Our results show that forb-rich steppe-tundra and dwarf-shrub tundra dominated during the cold climate before 14 ka, while deciduous erect-shrub tundra was abundant during the warm period since 14 ka. Larix invasion during the late Holocene substantially lagged behind the likely warmest period between 10 and 6 ka, where the vegetation biomass could be highest. We reveal highest richness during 28-23 ka and a second richness peak during 13-9 ka, with both periods being accompanied by low relative abundance of shrubs. During the cold period before 14 ka, rich plant assemblages were phylogenetically clustered, suggesting low genetic divergence in the assemblages despite the great number of species. This probably originates from environmental filtering along with niche differentiation due to limited resources under harsh environmental conditions. In contrast, during the warmer period after 14 ka, rich plant assemblages were phylogenetically overdispersed. This results from a high number of species which were found to harbor high genetic divergence, likely originating from an erratic recruitment process in the course of warming. Some of our evidence may be of relevance for inferring future arctic plant assembly rules and diversity changes. By analogy to the past, we expect a lagged response of tree invasion. Plant richness might overshoot in the short term; in the long-term, however, the ongoing expansion of deciduous shrubs will eventually result in a phylogenetically more diverse community. KW - sedimentary ancient DNA (sedaDNA) KW - metabarcoding KW - phylogenetic and taxonomic plant diversity KW - Arctic Russia KW - Siberia KW - holocene KW - glacial KW - treeline Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2021.763747 SN - 2296-701X VL - 9 PB - Frontiers Media CY - Lausanne ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ghaffar, Salman A1 - Jomaa, Seifeddine A1 - Meon, Günter A1 - Rode, Michael T1 - Spatial validation of a semi-distributed hydrological nutrient transport model JF - Journal of hydrology N2 - Semi-distributed hydrological and water quality models are increasingly used as innovative and scientific-based management tools. However, their application is usually restricted to the gauging stations where they are originally calibrated, limiting their spatial capability. In this study, the semi-distributed hydrological water quality model HYPE (HYdrological Predictions for the Environment) was tested spatially to represent nitrate-N (NO3- N) and total phosphorus (TP) concentrations and loads of the nested and heterogeneous Selke catchment (463 km(2)) in central Germany. First, an automatic calibration procedure and uncertainty analysis were conducted using the DiffeRential Evolution Adaptive Metropolis (DREAM) tool to simulate discharge, NO3--N and TP concentrations. A multi-site and multi-objective calibration approach was applied using three main gauging stations, covering the most important hydro-meteorological and physiographical characteristics of the whole catchment. Second, the model's capability was tested to represent further internal stations, which were not initially considered for calibration. Results showed that discharge was well represented by the model at all three main stations during both calibration (1994-1998) and validation (1999-2014) periods with lowest Nash-Sutcliffe Efficiency (NSE) of 0.71 and maximum Percentage BIAS (PBIAS) of 18.0%. The model was able to reproduce the seasonal dynamics of NO3--N and TP concentrations with low predictive uncertainty at the three main stations, reflected by PBIAS values in the ranges from 16.1% to 6.4% and from 20.0% to 11.5% for NO3--N and TP load simulations, respectively. At internal stations, the model could represent reasonably well the seasonal variation of nutrient concentrations with PBIAS values in the ranges from 9.0% to 14.2% for NO3--N and from 25.3% to 34.3% for TP concentration simulations. Overall, results suggested that the spatial validation of a nutrient transport model can be better ensured when a multi-site and multi-objective calibration approach using archetypical gauging stations is implemented. Further, results revealed that the delineation of sub-catchments should put more focus on hydro-meteorological conditions than on land-use features. KW - HYPE model KW - Nitrate-N KW - Phosphorus KW - internal validation KW - uncertainty KW - analysis KW - archetypical gauging station Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2020.125818 SN - 0022-1694 SN - 1879-2707 VL - 593 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Janocha, Julian A1 - Smyrak-Sikora, Aleksandra A1 - Senger, Kim A1 - Birchall, Thomas T1 - Seeing beyond the outcrop BT - integration of ground-penetrating radar with digital outcrop models of a paleokarst system JF - Marine and petroleum geology N2 - Paleokarst breccias are a common feature of sedimentary rift basins. The Billefjorden Trough in the High Arctic archipelago of Svalbard is an example of such a rift. Here the Carboniferous stratigraphy exhibits intervals of paleokarst breccias formed by gypsum dissolution. In this study we integrate digital outcrop models (DOMs) with a 2D ground penetrating radar (GPR) survey to extrapolate external irregular paleokarst geometries beyond the 2D outcrops. DOMs are obtained through combining a series of overlapping photographs with structure-frommotion photogrammetry, to create mmto dm-resolution georeferenced DOMs. GPR is typically used for surveying the shallow subsurface and relies on detecting the contrasts in electro-magnetic permittivity. We defined three geophysical facies based on their appearance in GPR. By integrating subsurface geophysical data with DOMs we were able to correlate reflection patterns in GPR with outcrop features. The chaotic nature of paleokarst breccias is seen both in outcrop and GPR. Key horizons in outcrop and the GPR profiles allow tying together observations between these methods. Furthermore, we show that this technique expands the twodimensional outcrop surface into a three-dimensional domain, thus complementing, strengthening and extending outcrop interpretations. KW - Digital geology KW - Svalbard KW - Billefjorden trough KW - Upper Paleozoic KW - Fortet member KW - Dissolution collapse breccia KW - Syn-rift breccia Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpetgeo.2020.104833 SN - 0264-8172 VL - 125 PB - Elsevier Science CY - Amsterdam [u.a.] ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hannemann, Katrin A1 - Eulenfeld, Tom A1 - Krüger, Frank A1 - Dahm, Torsten T1 - Seismic scattering and absorption of oceanic lithospheric S waves in the Eastern North Atlantic JF - Geophysical journal international N2 - The scattering and absorption of high-frequency seismic waves in the oceanic lithosphere is to date only poorly constrained by observations. Such estimates would not only improve our understanding of the propagation of seismic waves, but also unravel the small-scale nature of the lithosphere and its variability. Our study benefits from two exceptional situations: (1) we deployed over 10 months a mid-aperture seismological array in the central part of the Eastern North Atlantic in 5 km water depth and (2) we could observe in total 340 high-frequency (up to 30 Hz) Po and So arrivals with tens to hundreds of seconds long seismic coda from local and regional earthquakes in a wide range of backazimuths and epicentral distances up to 850 km with a travel path in the oceanic lithosphere. Moreover, the array was located about 100 km north of the Gloria fault, defining the plate boundary between the Eurasian and African plates at this location which also allows an investigation of the influence of an abrupt change in lithospheric age (20 Ma in this case) on seismic waves. The waves travel with velocities indicating upper-mantle material. We use So waves and their coda of pre-selected earthquakes to estimate frequency-dependent seismic scattering and intrinsic attenuation parameters. The estimated scattering attenuation coefficients are between 10(-4) and 4 x 10(-5) m(-1) and are typical for the lithosphere or the upper mantle. Furthermore, the total quality factors for So waves below 5 Hz are between 20 and 500 and are well below estimates from previous modelling for observations in the Pacific Ocean. This implies that the Atlantic Ocean is more attenuative for So waves compared to the Pacific Ocean, which is inline with the expected behaviour for the lithospheric structures resulting from the slower spreading rates in the Atlantic Ocean. The results for the analysed events indicate that for frequencies above 3 Hz, intrinsic attenuation is equal to or slightly stronger than scattering attenuation and that the So-wave coda is weakly influenced by the oceanic crust. Both observations are in agreement with the proposed propagation mechanism of scattering in the oceanic mantle lithosphere. Furthermore, we observe an age dependence which shows that an increase in lithospheric age is associated with a decrease in attenuation. However, we also observe a trade-off of this age-dependent effect with either a change in lithospheric thickness or thermal variations, for example due to small-scale upwellings in the upper mantle in the southeast close to Madeira and the Canaries. Moreover, the influence of the nearby Gloria fault is visible in a reduction of the intrinsic attenuation below 3 Hz for estimates across the fault. This is the first study to estimate seismic scattering and absorption parameters of So waves for an area with several hundreds of kilometres radius centred in the Eastern North Atlantic and using them to characterize the nature of the oceanic lithosphere. KW - Body waves KW - Seismic attenuation KW - Wave scattering and diffraction Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1093/gji/ggab493 SN - 0956-540X SN - 1365-246X VL - 229 IS - 2 SP - 948 EP - 961 PB - Oxford Univ. Press CY - Oxford ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Dahm, Torsten A1 - Heimann, Sebastian A1 - Metz, Malte A1 - Isken, Marius Paul T1 - A self-similar dynamic rupture model based on the simplified wave-rupture analogy JF - Geophysical journal international / the Royal Astronomical Society, the Deutsche Geophysikalische Gesellschaft and the European Geophysical Society N2 - The investigation of stresses, faults, structure and seismic hazards requires a good understanding and mapping of earthquake rupture and slip. Constraining the finite source of earthquakes from seismic and geodetic waveforms is challenging because the directional effects of the rupture itself are small and dynamic numerical solutions often include a large number of free parameters. The computational effort is large and therefore difficult to use in an exploratory forward modelling or inversion approach. Here, we use a simplified self-similar fracture model with only a few parameters, where the propagation of the fracture front is decoupled from the calculation of the slip. The approximative method is flexible and computationally efficient. We discuss the strengths and limitations of the model with real-case examples of well-studied earthquakes. These include the M-w 8.3 2015 Illapel, Chile, megathrust earthquake at the plate interface of a subduction zone and examples of continental intraplate strike-slip earthquakes like the M-w 7.1 2016 Kumamoto, Japan, multisegment variable slip event or the M-w 7.5 2018 Palu, Indonesia, supershear earthquake. Despite the simplicity of the model, a large number of observational features ranging from different rupture-front isochrones and slip distributions to directional waveform effects or high slip patches are easy to model. The temporal evolution of slip rate and rise time are derived from the incremental growth of the rupture and the stress drop without imposing other constraints. The new model is fast and implemented in the open-source Python seismology toolbox Pyrocko, ready to study the physics of rupture and to be used in finite source inversions. KW - Earthquake dynamics KW - Earthquake ground motions KW - Earthquake hazards KW - Earthquake source observations Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1093/gji/ggab045 SN - 0956-540X SN - 1365-246X VL - 225 IS - 3 SP - 1586 EP - 1604 PB - Oxford Univ. Press CY - Oxford ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Krstulović, Marija A1 - Rosa, Angelika D. A1 - Biedermann, Nicole A1 - Irifune, Tetsuo A1 - Wilke, Max T1 - Structural changes in aluminosilicate glasses up to 164 GPa and the role of alkali, alkaline earth cations and alumina in the densification mechanism JF - Chemical geology : official journal of the European Association for Geochemistry N2 - Pressure induced structural changes in silicate melts have a great impact on their physico-chemical properties and hence on their behaviour in the deep Earth's interior. In order to gain a deeper understanding we have studied the densification mechanism in multicomponent aluminosilicate glasses (albitic and albit-diopside composition) by means of extended X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy coupled to a diamond anvil cell up to 164 GPa. We have monitored the structural modifications from the network-former Ge as well as the network-modifier Sr. Notably, we tracked the evolution of Ge-O and Sr-O bond lengths (RGe-O, RSr-O) and their coordination number with pressure. We show that RGe-O increases strongly up to about 32 GPa, whereas RSr-O increases only slightly up to similar to 26 GPa. We assign these extensions to the increase of the coordination number from 4 to 6 (Ge) and from similar to 6 to at least 9 (Sr). Upon further compression RGe-O and RSr-O exhibit a continuous decrease to the highest probed pressure. These bond contractions, notably of RGe-O, that are continuous and exceed the one observed in pure SiO2 and GeO2, reflect a higher structural flexibility of multi-component glasses compared to those simple systems. Particularly, the high fraction of non-bridging oxygen atoms due to the presence of Na, Sr, Ca, Mg in the studied glasses, favours the simple compression of the highly-coordinated polyhedra of Si and Ge at pressure greater than 30 GPa. This is in strong contrast to pure oxides where cation polyhedral distortions govern the densification mechanism of the glass. The results of this study demonstrate that low field-strength alkali and alkaline earth cations, ubiquitous in deep Earth's melts, have a profound influence on the densification mechanism of glasses. Our results provide important constrains for interpreting the observed low velocity anomalies at the Earth's core-mantle boundary that have been, beyond others, referred to the presence of high-density melts. The hypothesis that non-buoyant melts at the Earth's core-mantle boundary can be formed by peculiar structural transformations in melts leading to higher coordination numbers compared to their crystalline equivalents is not supported from the present observations. The present results rather suggest that if velocity anomalies are to be explained by melts, these likely have considerable differences in chemical composition to the surrounding crystalline phase assemblage. Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemgeo.2020.119980 SN - 0009-2541 SN - 1872-6836 VL - 560 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER -